Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a tube sheet having a circumferential edge region for connection to a cover of a collecting tank and having a base region with openings for accommodating tube ends, the base region having webs provided between adjacent openings, wherein the webs connect the portions of the edge region situated on mutually opposite longitudinal sides.
Description of the Background Art
Heat exchangers with a tube-rib design generally have a collecting tank from a box-like cover and a tube sheet. The tube sheet has a number of openings which accommodate the tubes of the heat exchanger.
Among other things, due to thermal loads and fluctuations in pressure, the collecting tanks experience strong mechanical loads which act in particular on the tube sheet and therefore also on the tubes accommodated in the tube sheet. This leads to a negative effect on the tubes and the tube sheet, which overall reduces durability of the tube sheet and thus of the heat exchanger.
In the prior art, solutions are known which provide reinforcing elements on the tube sheet, which absorb the mechanical loads or counteract them.
For example, the publication DE 10 2006 005 421 A1 discloses an arrangement of cams in the tube sheet of a heat exchanger. The cams serve as an abutment for a cover that can be inserted in the tube sheet. In particular, they counteract an inward deflection of the cover. The cams are thereby particularly advantageous as they are molded upwards, i.e. away from the heat exchange network and towards the cover, thus forming a stop for the cover. In this way, the forces acting from the outside on the cover, which, for example, are produced by the connection between the tube sheet and the cover, can be greater. By such a design, a circumferential bead for accommodating the cover and/or a seal may be omitted, whereby the heat exchanger can particularly be constructed to be narrower.
A disadvantage of the solutions according to the prior art is that the reinforcing elements provided on the tube sheets are not optimally designed and not optimally arranged on the tube sheets to be able to counteract a deformation of the tube sheet and thus ensure sufficient load relief for the accommodated tubes.